By Tyler Murdock

Last fall, Southern Virginia revealed a new addition to its academic plan in launching students into their career — academic concentrations. Expanding the choices within a major, concentrations have become a part of the individualized model of education at Southern Virginia.

Building on the seventeen majors offered currently, the University recently began offering twenty different academic concentrations with topics ranging from sports management to veterinary medicine. The office of the Provost indicates that this list will only grow with the university. It is anticipated that there will eventually be fifty concentrations that will continue to point students to a specific career or graduate program.

Associate Provost Jeremiah John sees this as a new opportunity for students to focus on their desired career path.

“The name of your major is probably not the name of your job,” remarked John. “If you major in English, your job is not going to be English, if you major in chemistry you are not necessarily going to be a chemist. Concentrations are an attempt to focus on specific skills and knowledge that [students] will need, whether they will be applying for graduate school or careers.

Cheyenne Peisely, ‘18, will be one of the first to graduate with an Academic Concentration. As a music major, Peisely wanted to study her passion while keeping her career options open. Her interest in music and psychology brought her to consider Music Therapy as a career. Working with both music and psychology professors, she was able to customize an academic concentration that was tailored to her interests and career path.

“The professors here are so good at helping you tailor your education to what you want to do… Dr. Nielson in my voice lessons tailored all my lessons toward how I would use it in my music therapy. Psychology professors also helped me know how to deal with people that I would work with.”

Each concentration consists of four or five academic courses often accompanied with hands-on experience such as an internship or practicum. Students are also given an academic adviser who has professional experience in their desired field. This gives students further advantages as they plan for their future career.

Although a number of concentrations are new, two have been an important part of Southern Virginia’s academic program for quite some time. Both the Pre-Med and Pre-Law concentrations, formerly called advisory tracks, are prime examples of how concentrations have functioned to land career opportunities. Each have graduate acceptance rates of over 90 percent, a statistic that is notably high compared to the national average of only 18 percent.

According to the Office of the Provost, Southern Virginia Students applying for these programs are not just getting in to mediocre schools but top tier programs, often among the top fifty best schools in the nation.

“A lot of it is just improving the product,” says Dr. John, “we really hope that people see SVU as a place where we really help people prepare for graduate school and for a job.”

Twenty New Academic Concentrations to Be Offered was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“High adventure boot camp” may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one hears the words “missionary preparation,” but that is exactly what Bruce Olsen, Director of Public Affairs at Southern Virginia, created to meet the needs of the missionary surge in 2008.

The idea originated from Claudette Gerard, wife of then-member of the Quorum of the Seventy Duane B. Gerrard. From her initial suggestion to Olsen emerged Zion’s Camp, a six day summer camp where participants get a taste of both the spiritual and practical aspects of missionary service.

Simulating a week in the mission field, each participant is assigned a companion and practices common missionary tasks throughout the week such as teaching investigators, studying Preach My Gospel, and attending meetings.

Although the summer camp is designed to give youth hands-on experience with missionary work, participants also enjoy recreational activities like hikes and sports while striving to build their own testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the week, participants are mentored by returned missionary counselors. They work closely with youth by sharing stories and teaching skills learned from their own mission experience.

These returned missionaries are often able to observe the changes in participants that take place from start to finish of the camp. “It’s quite incredible to see the changes that can take place in someone in such a relatively short time,” remarked Brigham Doxey, former returned missionary counselor for Zion’s Camp. “Being a counselor was a great way for me to retain the missionary spirit that I felt on my mission.”

Bruce Olsen has since organized and planned the camp, of which he loves to refer to as “EFY on Steroids,” and has overseen nine sessions of Zion’s camp.

“Ultimately the take away from Zion’s Camp [is] to go home with confidence [that] they can teach, confidence that they can live the missionary lifestyle, and confidence that they will make friends and enjoy meeting people from across the country and across the world — which all makes it so that they can hit the mission field in a dead run and maximize their training in the MTC,” said Olsen.

For Aubrie Bouchard, an alumna of the camp who recently returned from her mission in Montana, Zion’s Camp was a pivotal moment in helping her prepare to serve.

“Before my mission, I struggled with feeling capable of serving a mission. I didn’t know if I would be spiritually strong enough to go out and teach the gospel,” she said. “My prayer was ‘Heavenly Father can I do this? Is this a thing that I am capable of doing?’ And I just felt the calmest assurance that I could do it. That experience, and the entire scope of Zion’s Camp, was really enabling.”

This year, Zion’s Camp will likely update its curriculum to reflect the Church’s introduction of iPads and social media to many missions. It will allow participants to bring cellphones and tablets with them and include special training in line with what is already being used in the mission field. This includes training on platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Whats App, which are used to reach investigators and contacts. Prospective missionaries attending the camp will apply the principles taught in the resource book Safe Guards for Using Technology.

Along with this change, Zion’s Camp will have a number of guest speakers and teachers that will give instruction from the Church’s Missionary Department.

“EFY on Steroids,” Zion’s Camp Takes Mission Prep to a New Level was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Among gasps and shouts of joy, President Russell M. Nelson announced Virginia’s first temple. Students, faculty and locals alike met the announcement of the Richmond temple with gratitude and awe.

The temple was announcement made during the final session of a historic semi-annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. President Russell M. Nelson, prophet and leader of the church, announced the construction of the Church;s first temple in Virginia.

For Latter-Day Saints, having a temple in Virginia is both a blessing and an indicator of the growth of the Church in the area. “Growing up, we joked about having a temple in Richmond, but the moment that the words came out of President Nelson’s mouth, I just couldn’t help to cry,” said Samuel Perkins, ’19.

A Virginia local who grew up 30 minutes from downtown Richmond, Perkins explained, “it means a lot for us and it means a lot for others who live in the surrounding area.”

The announced Richmond temple will reach areas that previously required up to four and a half hours of travel in one direction to serve in the nearest temple. This now closer location is just two hours away from campus and will decrease travel time for Latter-Day-Saints, allowing members in many locations more time to serve in the temple.

For students accustomed to temples closer to home, having one in Richmond will allow for more frequent visits.

“Having a temple closer to school says a lot. It says the church is here too, right here in Virginia, right here in Buena Vista” said Hannah Crave, ’21. “Everyone was so excited. Their first reaction was to shout and then two seconds later there were tears everywhere and everyone broke down and started crying... I feel that this was unifying for students. It brought us all closer.”

Buena Vista and Lexington area has taken its own significant role in the growth of the LDS faith in Virginia, even before Southern Virginia University opened its doors.

In 1884 two missionaries, Elders Welch and Kimball encountered a small community of Monacan Indians nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There Elder Kimball taught and later baptized Peter Mason and many of Mason’s seventeen children and forty-two grandchildren. The Mason family along with the Sorrell and Lawhorne families became a foundation for a rather large community of Mormons in a region otherwise hostile to the Church.

Speaking of his ancestors, Craig Lawhorn, assistant provost at Southern Virginia, said, “The early pioneers in the area really set the stage for this growth and planted the seeds that allowed for people like Glade Knight and others who came here and felt prompted to open the School, I think that it set the stage for that, as well as the faith of the people who kept the Church going in this area.”

By Tyler Murdock

Yesterday’s unusual spring snowstorm gave way to Southern Virginia’s first ever Digital Day. Student’s enjoyed a break from the classroom without getting behind in their school work, while taking the opportunity to get the most fun they could out of the wintery weather.

A mass of students congregated outside of Main Hall for a large-scale snowball fight at noon. The group divided into two teams and, dodgeball-style, playfully pummeled the opposing team with snowballs.

According to Charles Ferry, ’19, a key organizer of the event, the snowball fight was well represented by a variety of the student body.

“We got a lot of people, and a diverse turnout, I got to hang out a lot of people from different social groups and pummel them with snowballs so it was a good time,” he said.

Others decided to take a chance sledding down the university’s steep hill in front of Main Hall. To Spencer Dennis, ’21, it was his first snowfall in five years, and he enjoyed the thrill of dodging trees and maneuvering the sled as it careened down the hill.

“We heard about these digital classes [the day before] so we went to Food Lion we were like, ‘Oh my goodness they are selling these for ten dollars, lets get one, that would be so much fun tomorrow,’” told Dennis. He continued,“ I was like, ‘Lets do it!’ So we bought a sled and went in the afternoon.”

Although Spring Break occurred only the week prior, students still felt the mid-week break was well needed. Jessica Haggarty ’21 a member of SVU’s dance team, was relieved to have a day to catch up.

“ I was really grateful for the digital day. Dance has a competition this week and I have a whole bunch of assignments. With everything coming together all at once, I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit all of the rehearsals and get all of my assignments completed, I’m grateful I had a day to get everything done,” she said.

A Day Out of the Classroom, Thanks to Winter Storms was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Imagine a world without Auto-Tune, where those that once considered themselves tone-deaf sing with complete confidence.

This is the vision of Dr. Eric Hanson, Music Department Chair and choral professor at Southern Virginia University.

Hanson is the co-inventor of an app specially developed with the intent to eradicate tone-deafness and aid singers at all levels of experience improve vocal pitch and maximize musical performance.

“When we sing a pitch or play [one] on the piano, the pitch we hear is the fundamental frequency, which is what most people would hear — you play a C, they would hear a C,” explained Hanson. “But there’s a whole series of other pitches, called overtones, that are playing at the same time: the octave above, two octaves above that, then there’s a fifth, a third, and it sort of stacks on top of each other.”

Still in the developing stages of branding and alpha testing, the app’s official name is pending.

When paired with headphones, it allows users to listen to their own voice with specially designed filtering technology. The “overtones” (the pitches that often accompany the melody) are removed, leaving the user’s voice isolated. The app uses complex mathematical equations to block out the sound that, according to Hanson, is the most common cause for pitch problems in singing.

The idea that led to the app first occurred to Hanson as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University. During a lecture, Hanson learned about a theory of the origin of western music. Attributing the development of harmony in music to tone-deaf monks that couldn’t match the melody sung by the rest of the chorus. These ancient singers would often unintentionally sing harmony to the melodies heard by the rest of the choir.

“It’s fun yet anecdotal to think that western music started because somebody was tone deaf. But this [idea] intrigued me to think that some people just hear differently,” Hanson said. “Then I started thinking about my experiences with friends and others who are tone-deaf… and the pitches they sing are almost always in harmony.”

Hanson’s theory was validated during his graduate work at the University of Southern California. He observed a mentor and professor who used his own voice to deafen and block out harmonic overtones to help students to sing on pitch.

Inspired, Hanson first put his theory to the test after meeting Dr. Eric Freudenthal while both were teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso. Freudenthal was a computer science professor who, despite his musical difficulty, wanted to sing lullabies to his young child. The two worked together to develop the technology behind the application.

At Southern Virginia, both Hanson and associate music professor Kyle Nielsen have begun utilizing this technology in their choirs and vocal lessons. It doesn’t just help with pitch — but also to refine other important musical skills like vowel matching.

According to Hanson’s marketing consultants at UTEP, the number of choral students in the United States exceed 35 million. “The potential scale of the people that can benefit from this technology is far greater than I originally thought,” Hanson said.

Hanson sees this technology as an alternative to Auto-Tune. “If we can stick this in someone’s ear then it’s like auto-tune before you have to process it,” he said.

Dr. Hanson recently presented Intone to The Utah Music Educators Association.
Those interested in participating in alpha testing may email him directly at Eric.hanson@svu.edu

Meet Dr. Eric Hanson, the Mind Behind a New Solution to Tone-Deaf Singing was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Southern Virginia University’s Men’s Basketball has enjoyed an enthusiastic crowd this season. Fronting this excitement are the wives of six of the players, who have come to be known as the Basketball Wives Club: Carmel Armstrong, Camille Rumbaugh, Emily Winslow, Miklain Hardy, Elizabeth Johnson and Abby Prisbrey.

Clad in custom-made, matching t-shirts, these women have made it their mission to build team unity and cheer for their husbands, the team, and the individual players. Their goal is to invigorate not just their husbands, but everyone who plays on the team — and the fans in the stands, as well.

The women often join the team at restaurants after away games and even host dinners and parties for holidays like New Years, Thanksgiving, and Cinco De Mayo.

The loyal support given by these wives comes in many forms and at substantial sacrifice. For Camille Rumbaugh this means providing financially so that that her husband Aaron can pursue his passion for basketball. Camille, a graduate of Southern Virginia, works two jobs: one on campus at Jonzzey’s Cafe, and another at The Palms in Lexington. She often works long hours to help make ends meet at home.

“Sometimes it’s hard because I have to be the provider,” Rumbaugh said. “I have to work two jobs… but I am just grateful that my jobs are understanding and willing to work with my schedule… and [I can] still attend the home games and sometimes the away games.”

Tony Caputo, head coach of the men’s basketball team, acknowledges the sacrifices that these couples make. “It’s important for the husbands to have their wives to be a part of what they are doing. [The players’ spouses] are sacrificing a lot, I mean their husbands are away a lot… these guys, instead of playing basketball could be working and these wives, most of them are working to support their husbands to play [and] we appreciate it,” Caputo said.

“They are some the best people we have cheering for us,” he continued. “We always know we have them behind us.”

Men’s Basketball took on Frostburg State last Wednesday, taking the lead 73–63 during the second half. The Knights will finish of their season at Salisbury University on Saturday, Feb. 17.

The Basketball Wives of SVU was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Tyler Murdock

If you happen to be taking an evening jaunt around nine o’clock pm on a Sunday in Buena Vista, Virginia, you might be perplexed to see a group of students gathered in a circle on the porch of Main Hall singing familiar hymns. Although odd to those new to Southern Virginia University, this phenomenon has become a common Sunday scene and a beloved tradition for the campus community.

Since the early days of the University, students have assembled each Sunday in front of historic Main Hall to gather together to socialize and share their favorite hymns, always ending with an enthusiastic song, “God, Be With You Till We Meet Again.”

Although music has continually been an important aspect of Southern Virginia University, the longevity of this student weekly gathering, independent of formal direction from the University, highlights the students camaraderie and their commitment to their faith.

Tara Brown, a third year student is one of dozens of students who actively participate in this weekly musical gathering. To her, “Hymns on the Hill” (as it has affectionately been called) has meaning much more than the music — it is an outward expression of her personal religious devotion.

“[Hymns on the Hill] is a time every week that I consistently give to God. My sign to him of my faithfulness. And no matter what else is going on in my life, no matter how many assignments I have due on Monday morning, I can take 30 minutes to gather with my peers and feel the spirit singing our favorite hymns”

“We aren’t told to, it isn’t and assignment or a calling” Tara further explains, “it is purely because we want to feel close to God.”

Rain or shine, students continue to gather together and sing, even through the cold winter months. And although it remains a mystery as to when Hymns on the Hill originated, there is no end in sight of a weekly tradition which has become another unique feature of this small liberal arts university.

Hymns on the Hill: A Student-Run Gathering Demonstrating Faith and Commitment was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.